


Guarded

by orchidbreezefc



Series: Plastic Promises [1]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Other, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 02:30:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19880119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orchidbreezefc/pseuds/orchidbreezefc
Summary: For the Tumblr prompt: Bodyguard AU+Vacation AU, rarepair of my choice. And boy, did I choose one.





	Guarded

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sylibane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylibane/gifts).



Okay, so maybe Juno should have thought before dragging Pilot Pereyra back into the shelter from the baking Martian desert. Still, he wasn’t looking to be any more of a murderer than he already was, and Pereyra was the only surefire ticket he had to getting that damn eye out of his head.

And, well. Pereyra was out of a bodyguard without the Piranha, and Juno was fresh out of a job, and both of them were angry with Ramses. It made sense. Alessandra disentangled herself from the whole business, and they parted ways as soon as they returned to Hyperion City. Juno could tell she didn’t approve of their little team-up, but he was beyond caring just then. The important thing was getting answers.

Pereyra got Juno to a discreet and hypercompetent hospital. It was still a struggle to dislodge the eye that had taken root in his brain, but enough sedative to knock out a death millipede and a week in the hospital did the job eventually. Juno awoke to find Pereyra pacing and making phone calls. They still hadn’t announced their formal return to office, but, they informed Juno with a flash of bared teeth, they fully intended to take back what was theirs.

With Rita’s help (after a prolonged apology), the data still contained in the Theia Spectrum, and Pereyra’s contacts, taking down Ramses was easy enough. The old man, once caught, just seemed like he felt like he deserved this. Pereyra themself presented Juno with hard-won details about the past of one Jack Takano soon after.

Excuse Juno if it didn’t make him feel any better.

Pereyra was comfortably reseated in the mayor’s seat, but as Juno was ready to pack up and leave, a bitter taste still in the back of his mouth, they said, “You know, plenty of space for you here. If you’re still interested in making a difference. I guess I do owe you.”

“Of course you owe me,” Juno snapped automatically, even as his eye flicked down to their outstretched hand. “I saved your life. Several times.”

“Yes. And I think I would really prefer to have you around just in case anyone needs to do it again, buddy.”

Juno could hardly care less about saving their obnoxiously-patterned hide, but they made a point about making a difference--if he couldn’t make it by putting a good guy in the mayor’s seat, he could at least put himself in the seat next to the slimeball sitting there instead. He didn’t really expect to have as much sway in the political nonsense as Pereyra claimed they would give, but even so, being given a contract with half the power signed over to him was a start.

A month later, Ramses dies of a heart attack, and Juno’s so busy with investigative and administrative work that he barely has time to let the news destroy a part of him. Not work on Pereyra’s behalf; no, Pereyra’s content enough to laze around in luxury and shirk any duties that happen to find their way to them, and is constantly trying to get Juno to ‘loosen up’. But Juno has to do something, even with it obvious that his job as a bodyguard is superfluous in any of the places Pereyra deigns to hang around.

But once news of Ramses’s death breaks and Juno attempts to simultaneously drink and work himself to death to forget it, Pereyra puts their overly stylish high-heeled foot down. 

“We’re going on vacation,” they announce, giving an easy smile with enough iron behind it for Juno to know that there’s no arguing with it. Not that he doesn’t try, but he knows from the start that it’s a doomed effort.

Pereyra insists that the two of them are now a package deal, and frames it like the vacation is for themself alone, and Juno is required to go due to the contract he signed in case of stray assassination attempts. Juno doesn’t need to be a detective to know when Pereyra is lying at this point, even if they’re better at it than most when they want to be.

That’s how Juno ends up dragged kicking and screaming off Mars for the first time in his life. It’s not technically a kidnapping, which is how he imagined was the only way he’d be leaving if he left at all the last twenty years (short of a notable night’s exception). He still doesn’t let go of the ship’s cushy armrests until he can see Earth clearly, looming over them, and ends up mesmerized right out of his anxiety by the massive spinning source of all human life.

“See? Vacation,” Pereyra says, and Juno is surprised to see something soft in their usually sly features when he looks back at them. They come over to Juno’s chair and lean over him to look out the window. “You’re going to love Japan. It’s beautiful this time of year.”

“You’re too damn rich,” says Juno, his throat suddenly tight. “But yeah, I’m sure it’s great. Here’s hoping I won’t actually need to save your ass. I’d miss my paycheck.”

Pereyra’s answering laugh still has that note of triumph in it, and Juno knows they see right through him.


End file.
